Race report

FIA F3 Barcelona

F3 Spain: Martins recaptures points lead with feature race win

Victor Martins took his second FIA Formula 3 win of the season in Barcelona, taking the lead off the line to recapture the championship lead.

Megan White

Edited: May 22, 2022, 6:01 PM

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Victor Martins, ART Grand Prix

The ART driver passed Trident’s Roman Stanek on the run down to Turn 1, having had a better start than the Trident driver.

He quickly built up a solid lead and despite two safety cars, held on to take his third series victory.

Stanek took second place and sits second in the drivers’ standings, resisting challenges from Hitech’s Isack Hadjar and Alexander Smolyar (MP Motorsport), who finished third and fourth respectively.

Martins’ good start put him straight into the lead ahead of poleman Stanek, while further back Prema Racing’s Ollie Bearman passed teammate Arthur Leclerc, who also fell behind Caio Collet (MP Motorsport) at the start.

Prema’s Jak Crawford made up two places by Turn 1 to run in seventh.

Hadjar made up a place to take third from Smolyar around the outside of Turn 1 and was close to passing Stanek ahead of him before holding off.

The safety car was deployed on lap 4 after Rafael Villagomez and Kush Maini (MP Motorsport) made contact at Turn 12, with the Van Amersfoort Racing driver bouncing across the gravel and into the barrier, ending his race.

Maini received a 10-second penalty for causing the collision.

Racing resumed on lap 8, with Jak Crawford passing Kaylen Frederick for sixth at Turn 1 before Collet followed him through several corners later.

Stanek, Hadjar and Smolyar were embroiled in a tight battle for second by lap 10, with Martins almost a second clear out front.

A second safety car came the following lap after Carlin’s Brad Benavides went into the barriers at Turn 2, telling engineers over the radio he had suffered a mechanical issue.

On the restart, Leclerc made contact with sprint race winner David Vidales, who was forced to run wide at Turn 1, and received a five-second penalty.

He fell to 11th before making it back past Gregoire Saucy (ART) before running wide in a bid to pass Juan Manuel Correa for 10th on the run down to Turn 1 in an incident which will be investigated after the race.

Correa repassed Leclerc at the chicane while the Monagesque driver tussled with reigning Formula Regional European champion Saucy into the final laps.

Martins was over two seconds clear by the penultimate lap and crossed the line 2.3s ahead of Stanek.

Bearman finished fifth, his second best result of the season so far, with Crawford in sixth and Collet in seventh.

Franco Colapinto (Van Amersfoort Racing), Frederick and Correa rounded off the top 10, with Saucy in 11th.

Formula 3 returns at Silverstone in support of the British Grand Prix from 1-3 July.

F3 Spain - Feature race results:

Cla # Driver Team Gap 1 7 France Victor Martins France ART Grand Prix 2 2 Czech Republic Roman Staněk Italy Trident 2.300 3 18 Isack Hadjar United Kingdom HitechGP 3.000 4 11 Russian Federation Alexander Smolyar Netherlands MP Motorsport 3.600 5 6 Oliver Bearman Italy Prema Powerteam 4.300 6 5 Jak Crawford Italy Prema Powerteam 5.400 7 10 Brazil Caio Collet MP Motorsport 6.600 8 29 Argentina Franco Colapinto Van Amersfoort Racing 6.800 9 17 United States Kaylen Frederick United Kingdom HitechGP 8.400 10 9 Juan Manuel Correa France ART Grand Prix 12.000 11 8 Switzerland Gregoire Saucy France ART Grand Prix 14.100 12 25 Finland William Alatalo Jenzer Motorsport 15.200 13 3 Barbados Zane Maloney Italy Trident 17.500 14 4 Monaco Arthur Leclerc Italy Prema Powerteam 18.300 15 1 Denmark Oliver Rasmussen Italy Trident 18.700 16 15 Germany Lirim Zendeli Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 21.200 17 23 Israel Ido Cohen Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 26.000 18 16 Italy Francesco Pizzi Charouz Racing System 26.600 19 19 Malaysia Nazim Azman United Kingdom HitechGP 27.800 20 31 Reece Ushijima Van Amersfoort Racing 28.200 21 22 Pepe Martí Spain Campos Racing 28.400 22 24 Italy Federico Malvestiti Jenzer Motorsport 29.700 23 28 Italy Enzo Trulli Carlin 29.900 24 14 Hungary László Tóth Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 31.100 25 12 India Kush Maini Netherlands MP Motorsport 54.800 26 21 Hunter Yeany Spain Campos Racing 1'25.400 27 26 United Kingdom Zak O'Sullivan Carlin 20 Spain David Vidales Spain Campos Racing 27 Brad Benavides Carlin 30 Mexico Rafael Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing View full results

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